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Mail from Malaysia - I Told You So  Can I say it now? "I told you so." Yes, the good Minister was guilty as charged, and my opinion of fact has been vindicated by the headlines here in the local dailies, and possibly in Australia also. The Anti-Corruption Agency here in Malaysia has served the good Minister, Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, with not one, but two summons at their headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. The Minister is expected to be charged under Section 25(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1961, the charges will be in two parts, the first dealing with failure to disclose assets and the second part focuses on related offences under the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.
The good Minister might have been smiling from ear to ear when he walked out of a Brisbane Magistrates Court, but these charges have certainly wiped that smile off his dial. Half the economic woes in this country have been bought about by illegal money handling by many in high positions in Government and private industry. You only have to drive along a newly completed highway to realise that someone has skimmed millions off the deal, because the condition of the road is so bad, and the foundation has not been properly prepared. Whole sections of other highways that were completed in the last 2 to 3 years have been repaired this year because of the complete collapse of the foundation. More than three years ago there was a major landslide along the North-South highway just out of Ipoh, because the contractor who cut the side of the mountain away failed to stabilise it correctly. That is still being repaired and doesn't look anywhere near ready.  Does the Internet make the world a smaller place? You may ask yourself that question many times, as you ponder over the intricacies of modern communications, I know I never gave it much thought. You know how it is, the thing is there, use it, communicate with people all over the globe. But today I received an email, via this web site, from the Father of one of our former Ballet students. What's so unusual about that you may wonder.
The fact that it came from Texas is what made it so unusual. We only have a small number of Ballet students who are not locals, and they are usually from the expatriate community, as small as it is. The young lady in question was a student of my wife for a short time whilst she was here. Apparently the Father found the Australians Abroad web site and put 2 and 2 together and came up with our Ballet Academy. Just a piece of trivia that I thought I might share with you all.  Is bigger necessarily better? Maybe yes, and maybe no. Here in Malaysia everything seems to have to be either bigger, faster, louder, newer, cost more, or a combination of some , or all of the above. Where is the tallest building in the world? Where is the newest airport in the world? Where are, what will be, the most unforgettable Commonwealth Games in the world? Where is the city with the longest water rationing? Where is the city with the most haze? What city will have the biggest mass move from one old airport to their new one? And the list goes on.
Going to a shopping mall is not quite the same here as perhaps in Melbourne. There you can stroll around with boring Muzac at a discreet sound level, if you want to bother listening to it. But not so here. The sound of music literally blasts down from the overhead speakers, that seems to be in direct competition with any other store in the mall that might sell music, as their speakers assail your eardrums as you pass by. Then added to that is the video store that will have a TV out front showing the latest kung-fu movie, of course the sound must be at full volume and in direct competition with the other two. Add to that anybody doing a special promotion and it is literally a mind blowing experience. A bit different to the mind blowing experiences of the 60's I'm sure, although I personally was not into that scene. But I do believe the Buxton Bull may be able to shed some light on that magical era. An era where I'm sure on many a clear night the sound of a lonely Lover could be heard blowing to their true Love through a hand made pottery Ocarina, courtesy of the Buxton Bull. Where are you John?  Today's 64 thousand dollar question is…… "Do I complain too much?" If you answered yes, you are probably right, and you should go to the head of the class. But don't take your books, you're only going for a look and then it's back to your seat for you young fella me lad! How many times did my poor old Father say that to me? No, you don't have to answer that, there is no prize, so relax. Actually, I am often accused of cynicism. I used to reply: 'No, my good friend, not cynicism (which implies a sour emotional tone) but noble SCEPTICISM, which means merely a good-natured lack of naive belief in anything anyone says'. Now I merely
reply: 'Thank you for your kind appreciation.' Hey, guess what? I digressed again. Yes, I think that sometimes I do get a bit carried away with the negative things about the place. goodness me, there are negative aspects to wherever you may be living, even in Australia!
I just thought of something very funny then, but can't share it with you as you will all call me a racist, or at least tell me I am suffering from PaulineHanson-itis. If you want to know what I thought you can email me and I will tell you. Back to the whinger and the good bits about living here. Well, I don't actually have a real job as such. I can go to the beach whenever I desire. The weather is mostly to my liking. The food is very good and also cheap. I have a many very good friends. I can get on my Superbike and roar around Asia whenever I feel like it. (and I do a bit of that). I have a beautiful wife who is very understanding of my riding desires. (and doesn't complain too much when I put a new rear tyre on my bike every 7,000kms @ A$400). I don't have too much to care about in a financial sense. I can express myself through this really most excellent web site Dude. Go ten pin bowling, watch new release movies, play pool, play darts, walk in the spacious town gardens, ad infinitum. Why heck, even the Premier of the state has asked me to join his golf club! So there are quite a few good points to be had for living here. But I still like to gossip about all the other stuff too. Ha ha ha.  Hotels in town thought it would be a good idea to have a pool competition, something nice, along the lines of the world snooker championships, but just a bit downscale. Good idea I thought to myself, get dressed up, (not that I dress down you understand), and go along for a bit of the old mateship stuff. (Man thing Ladies, you know what I mean). Okay, it was in the Kenari (Canary) Lounge of the MS Garden Hotel, and a very nice venue it is too. I paid the exorbitant entry fee that also entitled me to one "free" drink, and got my name up on the players list. Really great surroundings, beautiful slate/marble floor, nicely laid out bar in the centre of the large room, a couple of guys thinking they were an Asian version of Frank Sinatra, singing along with the karoke player, looked like it was going to be a fairly pleasant evening. Just as the competition began, a three piece Philippine group commenced playing at about 400 decibels!!!!!!!
The two female singers, (apologies to real singers), commenced screaming out something that they mistook for being anywhere remotely musical, and the guy on the electronic keyboard appeared to be having fun testing all the funny things that make noises by themselves. I waited for a few minutes because I foolishly thought they had not realised the sound level was about 300 decibels over what it should have been, and they would rectify the volume very smartly. Ha! Who was I kidding? Myself apparently. No, they just continued on their merry way yelling out tuneless tunes and keying in tuneless chords. Five minutes later my wife and I departed with a headache and a bad taste in our mouths. Now here is the nice part. A few days later my wife and I were at hawker stall enjoying some Hainan chicken rice, when the Manager of the Kenari Lounge approached me and introduced himself. Being the only permanent whitey in town makes it easy to be found. He apologised for the poor quality of the band, and said they were finishing that week as the hotel management found them to be totally unsatisfactory, and that I was not the only one who was not impressed with the noise that they mistakenly thought was music. Anyhow, he issued me with a new voucher for the next heat of the competition and a complementary drink, and hoped I would come along with my wife. Well, great public relations exercise by him, and not something that you see here everyday I can tell you. In fact you see it so rarely here that I was suitable impressed, and thought very much of him for it. Needless to say we went along and I entered the next heat, lost the game but enjoyed myself all the same. I'm going again next week to enter that heat, win, lose, or draw, it is a nice place to go, with good company and lovely surroundings, and a manager that knows what the service industry is all about. I hope for Judy's sake (Letter from Manila) that the musicians have not returned to her part of the Philippines. By the way, I entered all five heats of the competition and lost each one. Have a lot of difficulty playing with an audience you see.  Well, it had to happen didn't it. Ride hard and fast, and in the highest risk category, and you eventually come unstuck. But at 200kph in a sharp right hander is not the ideal place to do it. No, no, don't panic fans, it wasn't me. My friends and I were out riding on Sunday, and I was pushing it fairly hard and only one of the others was close to me, while the rest were a kilometre or so behind.
It happened like this, a bit of straight road and we wound it up to 240kph, and then down to about 200kph for a rapid right hander where more leather got torn off my riding boot. Unfortunately my friend behind me didn't get the entry into the corner quite right and went off the edge into the loose stuff. Believe me when I say he was blessed, for where he went off it was a wide strip of grass with no trees or buildings and only one telegraph pole, which he missed by at least 2 feet. He managed to keep it upright for about sixty metres while trying to brake, and fortunately washed off a lot of speed before he finally lost it all together in the soft dirt, and off he went, bouncing along for about another 60 metres. We calculated he would have taken about 100kph off his speed before he dropped it, which accounted for the fact that he broke not one bone, nor sprained anything! Except for his bike, the damage to that appears to be about A$3,500, but insurance will cover it. Wearing a good quality full face helmet also paid dividends. The visor was ripped off it and there were some fairly severe gouges along one side of it, but his head was undamaged and unmarked. The guy owns a small bar here in Kuantan called Checkers, and since the accident his business has really increased. So many people are dropping in to see the guy who came off at 200, and they are spending money at the same time. I suggested he should get a glass cabinet made for what is left of his helmet and put it up on display. Just thought I would share that with you good folks.  Whilst we are on the subject of motorcycles, lets talk about Australia's number one boy Mick Doohan. It was bad luck for him in Spain because of the poor riding skills of someone else. The race had just begun and they were three wide around the first right hander and the clown on the inside went wide and smacked into Doohan, forcing him into the other rider, which eventually bought Doohan and the other innocent rider down and their race was over. Of course the clown that hit him managed to keep his bike upright and continued on with the race. I guess that is just the way it goes and on with the next one.
News In Brief has been postponed due to the lack of initiative by the writer. Going to the beach now, ha ha ha ha … Okay, don't get upset, here a couple of items that might interest you. Where do you live? Is it in good old suburbia, a mansion in Toorak, or a flat in the Western suburbs? How dense is your high density housing area? Here in Malaysia, and most of Asia, high density living is just that, and here is a classic example. In Butterworth last Wednesday, there was a fire that destroyed a row of five single story shop houses. If you can picture a row of five units, single story, and the front portion is used as a shop. So they burnt to the ground, and fortunately for all there were no injuries, and the only loss was material possessions. But how many do you think were made homeless by the fire? A dozen? Fifteen or more? How about more than 40 people. Yes siree, when they talk about high density housing here, they are not kidding. Next is the human being who allegedly turned into a pig! The Islamic Development Department in Kuala Lumpur said that "Investigations into such rumours have revealed they are baseless". Apparently a missionary named Ustaz Kamal Ashaari was the one identified as being responsible as the rumour monger. He had claimed in his religious talks that the incident had occurred in Damansara, and he himself had helped bury the "pig-human". There really isn't much more that one can add to that is there. TO ERICA; Why would you ever need guidance to make a choice between going to the US and going to Asia. My goodness me woman, whatever are you thinking. From all the details which you sent me in your email, I would have to say the choice is pretty clear, you would not be happy anywhere else but Asia. Just read Kate's column to get a full picture of what you would be facing should you ever get the urge to go there. Personally I have only ever thought about Disneyland, and after reading Kate's letters regularly I know I made the right choice. But the final decision is your if you want to be ridiculed for the rest of your life. TO AMIELIA; I must say you are one of the very lucky ones who get to travel the world and be paid to do it. I realise it can have it's drawbacks, but you have to take Monty pythons advice. "Always look on the bright side of life"….. Unfortunately you will be in Kuala Lumpur during your stay here, I do hope your hotel has water. That situation is slowly going from really bad to a total disaster. Good luck with your seminars, and should I be able to manage free time then I will definitely make an effort to be there. Take Care, ANTHONY. (Wherever I go, that's where I am.) June 1998 |